The study of exoplanets and protoplanetary discs

Fomalhaut b, visible as a tiny speck in this image, is the first exoplanet to have been imaged in visible light.

Hubble's high resolution has been indispensable in the investigation of the gas and dust disks, dubbed proplyds, around the newly born stars in the Orion Nebula. The proplyds may very well be young planetary systems in the early stages of creation. There is further information on proplyds in the section on the formation of stars.

The first detection of an atmosphere around an extrasolar planet was seen in a gas-giant planet orbiting the yellow, Sun-like star HD 209458, 150 light-years from Earth. The planet was not seen directly by Hubble. Rather, the presence of sodium as well as evaporating hydrogen, oxygen and carbon was detected in light filtered through the planet's atmosphere when it passed in front of its star as seen from Earth.

The details revealed by Hubble are superior to anything seen to date with ground-based instruments, and thanks to Hubble we have visual proof today that dusty disks around young stars are common.

Hubble has been instrumental in studying these extra-solar planets but it has also helped to detect them as well. In 2008, Hubble made an image of the planet Fomalhaut b, a gas giant planet about three times the mass of Jupiter, which orbits the star Fomalhaut. This was the first ever image made of an exoplanet in visible light.